Chapter 18: City In the Clouds

The morning was cold and the last thing we wanted to do was get out of our sleeping bags, so we didn't... lol, well not for a good long while anyways ^.^ Eventually though I became restless I most always do in bed, and got up to see if Vinay and the others were awake yet. Vinay was dead asleep but the girls were awake and doing the typical things girls do in the morning, which if you hadn't noticed is taking over the bathroom as if it were of the greatest military importance. After talking a little bit about our plan for the day (which honestly I couldn't decipher) I went for a brief walk in the city of Leh.To my amazement the dead and empty city I thought I had seen in the night transformed into a bustling center of life and commerce. The night we had arrived I could barely make out the gigantic towering spires of earth and ice that surrounded the entire city, now they were in plain view, and from them I felt a deep sense of awe and respect, for I knew to do otherwise was truely foolish. Surrounding the city, just before the mountains, was a thick layer of mist that seemed to circle leh in constant flux, later in the day as the heat rose this mist would dissipate and all that was could be clearly seen.Leh is the capital city of Ladahk and rests at a dizzying 3505 meters or 11,499 feet above sea level. The local people are a mix of tibetan and indian races, and are a distinct people all on their own. Their dress and sense of culture is a mix of both Indian and Chinese traditions, which are some of the oldest cultures left in existence today. If you are ever lucky enough to talk with these people, you would likely find yourself conversing with an individual of the upmost character, refined to a point by the harshness of their everyday realities. although this might all be pure speculation on my part, it was the feeling I got from nearly everyone I encountered in Leh.When everyone was finally awake and ready to go we had a quic

SlovakiaI didn't sweat that much last night, thank goodness, it is a very nice couch.. I waited too long to use the bathroom, preferring not to move, and someone else got in and used the shower when I really had to go pee. A double shame since the toilet is separated with its own room beyond the first bathroom door, which was now locked. Meanwhile I was outside the door doing the dance, the classic nervous jig we've all done while holding it it. The jig continued for a while until it turned into a freestyle breakdance, at which point I knocked, loudly. Luckily Zuzkas mom was already finished, and I waltzed in to put an end too my uncontrollable boogie. Zuzkas mom and I were the only ones awake and we had a lovely little getting to know each other talk over breakfast. Her english was enough for us to communicate, she studied English for two years in high school and is taking night classes now. She told me about life in Slovakia, how it was during Soviet times and after, when "Democracy" had come. She went on to tell me more about her family, how negative her mother is, always making a scene to get attention. Even faking heart attacks and calling the ambulance to have the family come and see her. Everyone in life has family, no matter if they know it or not, but each of us has experiences with our own blood that seem to strike closer to the bone than those we have with others. I guess thats just what family really is, those who are closest to us and mold us into who will become along our journey through life.She made me lemon ginger tea and told me about the trip we would all be going on to the family cottage in the countryside. They would be getting a new tractor and plan to continue remodeling the house. Zane and I are to be the new recruits in light of their ambitions. After explaining this to me she left for a business meeting and Zuzka came in to make us both tea, again lemon ginger. Once everyone was awake and breakfast had been finished, all attention was brought low to the bright little screens in our pockets. It truly amazes me how quickly cell phones have forever altered the very fabric of social interaction on a global scale. My other best friend Blake would always tell me how boring and pointless it was to be stuck on my pc playing video games. He was right then, and he's still right today. Except now it's many times worse because that pc is in billions of pockets around the world, never leaving their side, not even while sleeping. Zane and I go out on the balcony to blaze from his 5€ pipe he got in Spain. Being quite chilly and not wearing my jacket, I pull a blanket over myself and we sit together talking about what we'll do when we return home to Pacific Grove. Where will we stay? What will we strive for while home, and when will we leave again for parts unknown? The most important question being where to live, since both of us lost our rooms when we left home. We stay out there for an hour and then come inside, drink 1.5L of the original Budweiser beer each, which the U.S.A. Company stole from the Czech company, and then go for a walk into the city with Zuzka. She had some shoes to pick up that had been repaired, so after getting some french fries we went into the bowels of an abandoned mall to a tiny 8'x8' box of a room where a completely bald, bear of a man sporting a mustache and a pink shirt worked amongst piles of shoes and linens of various types. From there Zuzka leaves us and we find a restaurant to eat and drink in. It was a funny place, the decor reminiscent of a dark and smelly wine cellar beneath a tavern in the high mountains of some Germanic country. We returned to Zuzka's to nap for 45 minutes and once again walked back into the city, smoking from his pipe on a foot bridge spanning the 8 lane highway running through Bratislava. We meet Zuzka at a craft beer pub near the bus terminal. There I order a chocolate brownie and more french fries like a Fool! Vile weed that makes me eat everything in site!By the time we get back to Zuzka's we've already walked more than 5 miles today. After a short break Zuzka and Zane drive me to my couch surfers house on the outskirts of the city, in the industrial zone of course, but whose going to complain about industrial pollution with 12 days of free accommodation in the bag? Certainly not Daniel Maddox, the king of penny pinching, or so I used to be...Pedro comes down to the lobby to greet us, Zane and Zuzka leave and then its just us in his apartment overlooking the freight trains coming and going from the refinery not 400 feet from us. Pedro tells me about his home island off the coast of Morocco that belongs to Portugal. He tells me about Vienna which he likes very much, and of Slovakia which he's traveled a good deal of in his year and a half living here. Pedro is a line manager for IBM. Bratislava is a big hub for international corporations because it's a gateway between east and west and they get cheap labor out of it. Pedro came here to work as a manager at IBM, which he knows will afford him much greater possibilities in the future.  We finished our conversation and I unfolded his couch to try and sleep. Trying is exactly what I would be doing, for little sleep was to be achieved. His couch ended up being a new age torture piece cleverly disguised as furniture. No matter where I went on the folded out couch I would have pure steel beams hidden by a thin and hardly cushioning layer of fabric, protruding into my ribs, back or arms. Tomorrow I either sleep in his room on the other side of his bed, which is quite large and separated in the middle, or I find a new host. Im certainly not going to sleep on this death trap again...

Eurasia Bound

Day 1 DepartureThe morning was rough for the usual giddy, nervousness that comes the moment before a journey around the world. I've done it several times now. It doesn't ever go away completely, but knowing what to expect by your own experience is as good of a guide as any. Far better in truth, for what could be better than self assurances built by your own actions? It was King Solomon who said, "Wisdom is seeing the results of your actions." And he will always be right.As soon as everyone was awake Blake blasted the music in the living room. His own score, naturally, but a composite of others work that he too experienced in the moment of some far away now, or is it all the same "now"? I felt immediately attacked by this noises intrusion into what I had hoped would be another peaceful morning as always. A gift i'd expected, but did not receive. Instead I was given another trophy with which to adorn the halls of my mazed pathway through life. And this addition, to that twisted, less traveled path, is one of patience, poise and speaking my truth, before allowing it to be poisoned by too much consideration or excuse. I was late of course, in its delivery, but not long enough to miss the ride to resolution.I told him what my idea had been for my last morning there, a situation no one is ever in control of, but we believe we do to keep sane in an ever more chaotic universe. Control, ever anesthetizing control. I large portion of my personality reminds me of a man in pursuit of glory via his own search for meaning in a universe he grasps at, but lets slip between his perfectly capable hands to thwart the conclusion of his goal, before he has time to grow tangibly outward, instead of inward, to the point of forgetting the many perfect lessons of divinity we all have, and then, like the shirt worn too long, faded away to very comfortable but discarded rags.Until very recently it was a situation of one sided victories, but always with the rebellious cry from within that spoke of these victories as temporary half measures and each with soon to come consequences. As pride is always streaking across the horizon to its inevitable fall. But its that grand flare of passion and significance, momentarily blazing in view, that etches us on, both for control and from freedom of it. At any rate, back to Blake and I in the living room. He's turned on another set of speakers with calming music now, but the other noises still blare on."I'm making you stronger." He says. "To be able to keep your wits about you when all else around you are loosing theirs." Sometimes, when Blake is confronted for what he's doing in relation to his effects on others, he turns it into a lesson the other person must learn. Whether or not he does this with that intention is still a mystery wrapped in an enigma, something which describes Blake quite well. One we all learn so much from, consciously or not. In the end we worked it out and sat peacefully together alongside the soothing music, now the only one playing.If you'll look back through time, this seems to be the normal line of work for prophets and sages. And if you'll listen closely, you too can become a believer. But until then, you'll just be pissed off. Which is why prophets and sages are so often misunderstood, killed, or worse, immortalized as something they weren't. The truth tends to get in the way of established order, which explains why its so absent in the lives of bourgeoisie people. That is, those people who have future preference, insatiable material lust and the drive to sacrifice anything, especially the present, for some perfect future they believe is theirs to attain.When time came to leave for farmers Market I had packed all my things, both those I would take with me and those I will leave behind in Pacific Grove. The room i've been using in seaside, with Blake's family, will be open for use when I leave, but thats of little concern. Its been many years since I truly had my own room, with all the travels Ive done it was simply a matter of convenience to rent it out to others, or turn it into a kitchen lol. Yet this type of life has always appealed to me. In terms of both the freedom it provides and the lack of space for me to accumulate material things, of which I have never been a devotee. A great boon in the service of my world exploits without a doubt.The farmers Market at Monterey Peninsula College was still slow when we arrived close to 10am, but picked up as predicted by 10:30. There I met my buddy Al, the man whose been feeding the needy in Monterey county, every Sunday for a year now. You'll see him at every corner of significance, raising money to keep those of us who have dropped of the radar a hot meal and a show of support. To Al, we are all sons in need, and he's right. Even war veterans, over twice my age, destitute youths from newly ejected lives of sheltered conformity and escaped survivors or victims of society from all walks of experience are all greeted the same, "How you doin Son? And parted with a joke and a laugh with a parting, "Be good"We spoke of the journey ahead of me and a man donating money to Al's purpose overheard the gab and chimed in about his daughter who was also quite a prolific adventurer. She had gone to Alaska to study whales and safeguard the polar bears. This is when both the donating gentleman and Al mentioned the book, Alaska by James Michener, their enthusiasm for its contents has me interested enough to share it, even before having read it. A rare case.We finished our supply run, Blake acquiring the necessary ingredients for Lou Corona's Lemon ginger blast drink, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ0XialTsjg and 4 blood oranges, 4 pippin Apples for me.We drove around Sunset blvd in Pacific Grove and then he dropped me off at my first Girlfriends house, where her dad, Blake's boss since even those days back in the ether of history, still lives. I worked for him, my other best friend Zane, whom Im going to meet in Amsterdam in 3 days, also dated this same girl and worked for her dad... Truth is indeed always stranger than fiction.I didn't say hello or stick around, even after 11 years I have no business there, that whole area of P.G. Is an ever present reminder in my life of cause and effect, not likely to change, but then again, why should it? Remember what King Solomon said? About Wisdom being the ability to see the results of your actions? Well you have to make the action first, then comes the wisdom... as painful as life gets, it's those memories that seer their lessons into us, that last a lifetime, and become the guiding words that prevent such follies for others, if only they will hear them.Walking through the forrest to Preston's house, the final best friend on my three person list, I saw a large hound bolting toward me and a voice yelling from behind. Used to this type of thing I simply ignored the pup and walked on, it passed me only slightly and pivoted around to assault my undefended back, hopefully with love, at least that was the plan in theory. My theory.The young lady whose voice I heard before finally caught up and raised her voice to the final recognition of the gleeful animal. Although not determined to continue the chase, his look was one of sincere apology to her that he couldn't chase me down before she caught him in the act. I smiled and walked on as she leashed him. Making it to Preston's physically untouched by the love of that particular free spirit in full sprint.Preston was watching the tell a vision as I arrived, Always Sunny in Philadelphia it was called, another well written but exceedingly vulgar expose on the continuing disintegration of societies moral and intellectual fiber, in comedic fashion of course, to appease any cries of complaint left in the tell a vision watching publics eyes. Preston had to go so we wished each other well and parted. I remained at his house for a spell to continue my rare journey through post apocalyptic America in Fallout 4. A game whose open world allows you to do what you want, making countless moral, ethical, financial, necessary or otherwise desired decisions for yourself and those you meet. A process I tired of in short order in light of having to make such decisions in the real world, especially having only 2 hours left before my shuttle out of town.I stopped by the The Central Coast Juicery where I work, got a few juices, said hello to my colleague and then to everyone next door at Sun Studios, where Lee, Blake's Dad works. A lovely situation to be sure.I went home, had some of my moms carrot ginger soup and finished Tragedy and Hope, by Carroll Quigley. She dropped me off, we hugged and away I went with the shuttle. The entire drive to San Francisco airport the driver and I, tim was his name, spoke about travel, growing up in Monterey county, and I must have gone on an hour long speech about the effects of cooked foods, animal protein, which includes dairy, on our bodies. Tim was very receptive to it, even said he would start juicing himself.Next was going through security. Being 7 at night it was light traffic. Once to the screening area I let the nearest security personnel know that I would be opting out of the full radiation beaming scan. As Ive always done, even missing a flight by 1 minute because of it, a choice I would make again given the danger of those machines.I had to wait 10 minutes before being patted down. The man with the booming voice informing us about screening procedure would be my screener. I asked him if he ever had acting training for his voice and We immediately started up a conversation, he told me he served 5 years in the marines at a radar station and he told me all these tricks to get things through security lawfully. Like freezing half a bottle of water to take with on the flight. Its not a liquid this way or a gel so its allowed. Very clever. He even walked me to the gate making jokes and chatting all the way. Definitely my best experience with airport security.I got on the flight and didnt eat anything they served. As my diet is mono at the moment, meaning one thing at a time, all they could give me was 2"x2" salads. But the crew got together and shared their personal food items with me! 1 ripe banana, 1 green apple, 1 orange and 1 pear. Even a whole 1.5 liter bottle of fluoride free water, in my experience thats totally unheard of. I began reading Henry Millers Tropic of Cancer, and wow.. I guess its really easy to pass by pure gold dozens of times and not care to investigate, even with people handing it to you outright. It just ends up on a shelf. Until you clear the other massive tomes you've yet to finish off your desk. As was the case this time.I watched no movies, just rested and read a little here, a little there. Until we landed in Munich, where I continued to read and finally started writing this, my first blog entry on our journey around the world.

The Journey Awaits

Cart (0)